Luciano (Riccardo Trepa, the director's grandson) is
released from prison and his cleric brother arranges for him
to work for Alfreda (Leonor Silveira), a wealthy young woman
who wants Luciano to accompany her on a pilgrimage to the
holy sites in the Middle East (something she has done many
times before) in order to have a vision of the Virgin Mary
(and invite her to tea). All around her are people who
encourage her mania including soliciting priests, an English
professor of religion (Michel Piccoli) who suggests that the
Virgin Mary was actually a wealthy woman (like Alfreda), and
a forger (Luis Miguel Cintra) who offers a supernatural
solution to Alfreda's ambition. Only her childhood friend
Queta (Adelaide Teixeira) and Luciano want to disabuse
Alfreda of her obsession; but Luciano with the help of a
piano tuner/counterfeiter takes extraordinary steps to do
it. The film is peopled with actors who have become de
Oliveira stock players (Trepa co-starred in
BELLE TOUJOURS
with supporting actor Piccoli who starred in PARTY
and I'M GOING HOME with Baldaque, Cintra co-starred
with Silveira in ABRAHAM'S VALLEY and
O CONVENTO with
Duarte de Alameida who here plays Alfreda's much older
husband) who all give good performances though none really
stand out. Frequent de Oliveira cinematographer Renato Berta
provides stately cinematography largely consisting of static
though beautifully composed group shots and long takes.

Released theatrically by the
now-defunct New Yorker Films, MAGIC MIRROR never received
a domestic home video release. The dual-layer image on this
Brazilian import is standards converted from PAL. There are two
Portuguese stereo tracks; one in 'Portugal' Portuguese (Michel
Piccoli plays a Brit and speaks heavily-accented English and
Marisa Parades speaks Spanish although all of the Portuguese
characters seem to fully comprehend and respond in Portuguese)
and a 'Brazilian' Portuguese DUB. Although dual-layer, the image
looks somewhat drab and noisy in darker scenes (the trailer
image looks worse) but this is the only English-friendly
release.

There are extremely annoying
unskippable trailers for the dire-looking American DOA: DEAD
OR ALIVE and TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES and more
trailers in the extras section. Portuguese distributor Lusomundo
released a pricey
22-disc De Oliveira boxed set some time ago and that
release reportedly has English subtitles.

NOTE: Michael tells us in email: "For the record, and
probably you have been told this countless times already, if
anyone asks you about the Oliveira MAGIC MIRROR which is so
tantalising yet expensive (postage to Australia is $40 alone) in
the list this time, the version of that film in the massive
Oliveira Portuguese box has no English subtitles. Same as
BELLE TOUJOURS which of course is available separately in the US
with subtitles. In that same Portuguese set the copy of A CAIXA
has no sound with any of the soundtrack options available on DVD
players - sound for the menu setup at the start of the disc but
the film is silent erroneously. Every copy of this disc in this
set that I have heard about is the same. " (thanks Michael!)